Rehosted and hotlinked webcomics will be removed, unless you are the creator. Please submit a link to the original comic's site, and possibly a mirror in the comments. Tumblr-exclusive comics are the exception, and may be rehosted, however if the artist's name or watermark are removed, the post will be removed. (*)(*)

14. No SMS or Social Media Content (including Reddit)

This includes direct linking to reddit threads, reddit comments, other subreddits, facebook profiles, twitter profiles, tweets, embedded tweets, and screenshots of the above, including text messages, omegle, snapchat, instagram and others. This also includes any other sites that may be considered social network sites. Please read the announcement.

Hate speech and bigotry will be removed at the moderators' discretion.

Serial reposters may be filtered

What do I do if I see a post that breaks the rules?

Click on the report button, and send us a message with a link to the comments of the post.

What should I do if I don't see my post in the new queue?

If your submission isn't showing up, please don't just delete it as that makes the filter hate you! Instead please send us a message with a link to the post. We'll unban it and it should get better. Please allow 10 minutes for the post to appear before messaging moderators

I second AS or undifferentiated spondyilitis. Autoimmune disease that causes inflammation and fuses the spine and or the sacroiliac joints (the testicles). Hard to diagnose, but a possibility that shouldn't be overlooked. Send to a rheumatologist.

Not really. There is a really long list of patient health identifiers. This has none of them. I.E, if this just had the state on it still would technically not be violating HIPPA. Though just having the county on it would be a different story.

In the sense that most organizations would consider this a serious breach of protocol, to the extent that OP would possibly lose their job over it, even in the absence of PHI. He redistributed a document, in part, without the consent of the patient, that contained information given by the patient in good faith that its use would be restricted to treatment. Clearly, this wasn't the case.

If doctors throw around enough images like this one. A smart person could begin connecting dots and identify people. Maybe this person visited the doctor after using social media saying "Ow my back." Then this picture appears showing the same complaint. Sooner or later, this COULD contribute to violating someone's rights. It doesn't matter if this post does by itself. If this came from a patient's file, it shouldn't be in the funny section of reddit. Don't defend carelessness.

I don't know if I would want a doctor or a nurse that would post my medical condition. Even worse is that it would be with such juvenile humor. I expect my medical professionals to be just that - professional. Many patients face embarrassing medical situations and if they think that they will be ridiculed or mocked by their Doctors there is a complete breach of ethics and confidentiality. I can't imagine anyone who would be ok with their Doctor going public with their private information. If this is real - can you imagine if the person who drew the diagram was a Redditor and saw that THEY were the patient. I wonder what a medical ethics board would do with a patient complaint such as this? Does anyone know? Would they get a slap on the wrist or would it not be a big deal?

I'm not a lawyer, but since there's no identifying information it's not a HIPAA violation, so from my understanding there's no legal issue here (please correct me if I'm wrong). However, most healthcare facilities do have internal policies regarding photography, which this would probably violate if OP's employer has such a policy in place. Personally, I wouldn't share something like this, but I would hardly call this mocking or ridiculing a patient, as you put it.

Honestly, most doctors & nurses usually have pretty juvenile senses of humor. We see assess naked bodies, manage bodily fluids, and stick devices into odd places with the goals of helping our patients get healthy or easing their suffering. Our jobs are often stressful, and we sometimes watch terrible tragedies unfold. Some days you just really need to have a laugh at a dick drawing.

Acting professionally with a patient doesn't mean that my sense of humor outside of interacting with you has to be "grown up". You draw a dick and it makes me chuckle when you are gone doesn't mean my service rendered is now worse.

You can be professional and have a sense of humor. But it sure ain't professional to post charts your patient filled out on the internet so strangers can laugh at them. Sure, not much harm here, but it's not hard to see how it's pretty unprofessional to Reddit your patient's pain chart, right?

HIPAA for starters. Although no personal was information was disclosed the action itself is not illegal. Since the document itself will most likely contain private information it is unprofessional at the very least to use it as a source of humor outside the confines of the office.

Sorry, I didn't see an explanation. The document isn't being used for humor, this image is. As you said it isn't against HIPAA and no private information is being shared. I am not trying to be dense, I just want to understand your point of view, as it differs from mine. Can you try to explain to me in again, as I am failing to understand?

Ok...real word scenario. I am a firefighter. We use forms of varying degrees of importance all which fall under HIPAA guidelines and regulations regarding their distribution. We share one, we're gone. Period. That's the law. We also have a department regulation that protects against the slightest chance of any such HIPAA violation. That regulation states no part of ANY form can be reproduced without the consent of the Chief or a commanding officer. Violating this regulation is considered unprofessional and is dealt with accordingly. Does that clarify it?

Yep, even if there is no identifying information of the patient , it's still extremely likely to be in violation of the policies of whatever department he works in. You can get fired for something like that, it's not worth it. Confidentiality and privacy are HUGE when it comes to hospitals, to the point that even anonymized research where no identifying information is recorded must inform the participants of HIPAA and the responsibility of the investigators to not disclose such information. Now, if the OP just redrew what the patient had drawn, that's a different story, and I kind of suspect they did if they're actually a healthcare provider.

Sorry, I thought of one more question if you could indulge me a bit more.

So it could be viewed as unprofessional/sloppy to give out this form, as it could get him fired. Do you feel this may carry over to other aspects of the doctors care giving? I am just trying to make the connection between Doc. could get fired to I don't want him as my doc.

You shouldn't spread bad info with only a cursory grasp of anatomy to try to impress people. There's a reason that evals take at least half an hour, there is no way that you could conclude that from seeing that picture. And with pain all the way into her upper thoracic spine her problem is likely a lot more complex than simple core strengthening.

I was aiming for this comment is just as funny as the submission. I don't really give two shits about "impressing" anyone here.

Also I guessed that because that's where I have my pain and that's what some of my problems are, though they aren't all of them. It sounds like you don't realize how important core strength is for people with back problems, but trying to be snarky to people over the internet is cool too, I guess.

Taking the pressure off the spinal disks long enough can give the disks time to heal a little, provided the damage has not gotten too extreme.

As the surgeon told me, you do not want to have epidural surgery until the pain is so bad that you can barely walk. They are coming up with new ways to heal peoples disks at a rapid rate. Essentially the method they use now will be viewed as barbaric in five years time.

My pain used to spread down the legs as well, when my disks where bulging worse and squeezing my sciatic nerve. Core strengthening reduced the bulge to where it was no longer putting pressure on the sciatic nerve. I have been able to put off back surgery for four years now, when the pain used to be so bad I could barely walk.

If she can relieve the pressure on the disks enough to get them to unsqueeze the pressure off the sciatic nerve, that is a much desirable fix than surgery.

Some people just wont do the recommended workouts to ease up their back pain.
And even if they do, that will take time & the condition could get worse. The surgery is not bad, the chances of anything going wrong are extremely low. The expense isn't high either.

I disagree with you (with first hand experience with major back pain) as surgery being the best option, but I think we can both agree that anyone reading this with back pain should seek medical expertise from a doctor, rather than relying on a debate they read on the internet.

Agreed. I've been working at a workers comp. clinic that has a large import of patients with back pain. When it is severe enough to cause pain in the lower legs, we have gone with the route of epidural about 75% of the time, the majority of the other quarter went another route usually by Fear of Surgery.

In Most cases, the patient is relieved of the pain and well in just one session/procedure

My doctor referred me to a surgeon and it was the surgeon who advised me to take up pilaties, rather than proceed with surgery. He was the one who told me that the longer you can possibly put off surgery the better, as new techniques and technologies are being come up with at a rapid rate. I still have a lot of pain, but it is no where near as bad as it used to be.

My Doctor is the one that performs the epidurals at our facility.
You still have pain. If you are able to live with a little pain then by all means, live with a little pain.
But the epidural route is there, it is a cheaper route than going back to the clinic (In our case) week after week, its quicker and safer. The new technology wont be out for who knows how long & who knows how expensive it will be when it comes out [as far as I know, there isn't much besides major surgery in order to fix the discs]. epidural has been done for years and is considered very safe & very effective

So uh, that's where my pain is too. Two years of physical therapy and no relief. I have been diagnosed with Thoracic and Lumbar Degenerative Disk Disease. What can I do for the pain? I'm 27 a doctors think I'm just trying to get pain pills(which, honestly would allow me to return to a normal working functions). What should I do?

Sadly, you're right. In regards to aiding in nerve pain, there are a few medications that help to alleviate pains involved with the C-nerve fibers, but really nothing that's been found to help with A-delta fibers beyond cannabinoids. Opioids and a few different epilepsy drugs can help with C-nerve neuropathic pain, though quite a few of them are more placebo in treatment. Cannabis is currently the only drug known / well documented enough to treat A-delta nerve fiber pains in the sense that it won't fully rid the pain, but it does effect the brain's reflexive reaction to pain, which is honestly the best scenario. It won't numb you out like opioids, so you can continue to feel the pain, but it won't be as physically taxing and almost completely unnoticeable. The benefit comes in still being able to sense the pains, just in case something is actually hurt and needs attention. As for me, I've run the gamut of nerve pain drugs and can say that cannabis was the best solution, though I have not smoked in over a year. I decided its best to just build up the pain tolerance and go with it.

And because there isn't even a fold. OP has stated under oath the form was mailed to the patient. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, upon close inspection you will notice the "fold" is actually just a inconsistently formed crease. Based on OP's initial response to the horizontal fold being a result of mailing, it was present prior to being obtained by the patient therefore eliminating the possibility of the document being mailed in a large envelope that required no fold. Your Honor, I'm sure the court is aware that the minimum number of folds required for a standard 8.5"x11" document to fit into business size envelope (the most commonly used size my medical offices) is 2, we can all agree that OP is a high school student that drew a penis on a quiz, concocted a hair-brained story about the origin of the drawing, then posted said image on Reddit with the intention of gaining Karma. This case and the defendant are frauds. I urge the jury to strike this case down and set a precedent for all those contemplating similar fraud to see as a clear message that fraud of this nature will not be tolerated within this forum!

Okay, while I stand by my reply, this is too good. As a subscriber and fan of /r/quityourbullshit, I find it likely that OP is a big fat phony, but I'm also a fan of playing devil's advocate. Either way, my hat's off to you.

Your a chiropractor? Are you a crazy bastard? It seems like all the chiropractors I have seen are crazy. My first one tired to convenience me that he could cure my arthritis. The one by my house made me watch a 30min video on why backs can magically cure medical illnesses. And my newest one spent 20min talking to me about how I should come in 3 times a week to get 'above my pain', what ever the fuck that means.